Romans 14 | Who Is Your Grand Poobah?

“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.
So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end,
Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”

Romans 14:8-9

For those of us old enough to remember the Flintstones cartoon created by Hanna-Barbera, you may recall that Fred was a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes. This exclusive secret society was ruled by the Grand Poobah who was the supreme authority for all things and was both revered and feared. The normally opinionated and pompous Fred Flintstone would become surprisingly humble in the presence of the Grand Poobah and was obedient to him to the point of ridiculousness.

In Romans 14 Paul addresses the relationships between believers in the church in Rome and specifically addresses the comparing and judging that was occurring and the issues of causing weaker members to ‘stumble’. In the middle of his discourse on these subjects, he writes a very poignant couple of sentences about the Lordship of Jesus Christ in the life of a Christian. He emphatically states that a true Christian lives their lives “…to the Lord.” He goes on to say the beautiful statement, “…we are the Lord’s.”

If you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, then He is the absolute ruler of your life. That means you have submitted yourself wholly and completely to Him and true transformation has occurred to turn your stony heart to flesh. Do His words and truths guide your behaviors towards your brothers and sisters in the faith and frankly everyone you know and meet? Paul was telling the believers in Rome if they put Christ in that position then everything they eat, whatever day they chose to keep as their Sabbath, and their behaviors towards each other will be reflective of the character and life of Jesus Christ.

That should lead us towards self-examination. We should regularly ask ourselves who is our Grand Poobah? Who do we revere and submit every part of our life? Are we holding back some part of our life and worshipping something else instead of giving it over to the Lordship of Jesus? Prayerfully examine your life and ask God to reveal the answers to those questions and I’m confident He will. He has for me.